This blog was first created in 2006 as an experiment to help people who would like to learn Korean language online by providing some basic grammar lessons on Korean.

Over the years, I was able to put up more and more Korean language lessons online, and as of now, in January 2011, there are more than 70 online Korean lessons in this blog.

The principles in writing these online Korean language lessons have been that I remain intentional about making them as easy to understand and readily applicable in daily life as I can, and comprehensive enough to cover major points of the Korean language which includes both the Written and Spoken forms.

Now, what do I mean by written and spoken forms?

In Korean, the verb endings change depending on whether the language is used in writing or speech.

Note: In Korean grammar, the verbs come at the end of a sentence. For more on the sentence order, please read Sentence Order.

For example, "나는 학교에 갔다" which means "I went to school" is a written form, and "나는 학교에 갔어" is a spoken form.

나는 학교에 갔다 = I went to school (written form as in writing, books, diary and newspaper)

나는 학교에 갔어 = I went to school (spoken form as in conversations, movies and dramas)

As you can see, the ending of a verb changes from 갔다 to 갔어, both of which mean "went".

Therefore you'd write in one way but speak in a slightly different way. But don't be too alarmed at the difference, as there are simple patterns to it, and you'll get to learn them along the way.

It is also important to learn the differences in degrees of formalities in the Korean language.
There are three major types in the degrees of formality:

Informal

Polite

Honorific

In expressing the politeness in the speech, Korean differs from English in that the verb endings change depending on the age and rank of the person being addressed to and the social setting one finds oneself in. For example, when I'm asked, "Where are you going?" I might answer, "I'm going to school" in the following ways:

학교 가 - [Informal, to people of the same age as me or younger than me, especially among close friends]

학교 가요 - [Polite, to people older than me, and in formal social situations]

학교 가는 중입니다 - [Honorific, this is rarely used in normal conversations. I would say this type of speaking is only found in very formal settings such as on the news or in the army.]

You would use the polite form even when the person you're speaking to is of the same age as you or younger than you if you're not very close to the person and/or you're in a formal social setting. I'd say it's best to stick to the polite form first and then use the informal form later as you gain more understanding of the Korean language.

The major mark of the division is probably the age. The polite language is used to people above one's age and informal language to people equal to and below one's age.

However, generally, the polite language is generally used in many social situations and the informal language is usually used among close friends.

I am trying to lay out some basics to the language of Korean. However it'd be good at this point to dive into the lessons and learn them for yourself.

You can start reading the Korean language guide on this website, Learn Korean: LP's Korean Language Learning, from the top to bottom in the order as it's designed to guide you from the basics to intermediate and advanced Korean lessons.

Before you go, here is a bit of history of 한글 (Hangeul, the Korean alphabet):

Korean is the official language of Korea, both North and South. There are around 78 million people who speak Korean around the world. [1]

한글 (the Korean alphabet) was invented by Sejong the Great in the 15th century. Before that time, people used Hanja (the equivalent of the Chinese characters) which was not only difficult to learn but was also considerably different to the Korean grammar and sentence order. [2]

한글 is a phonetic writing system which means that the words correspond to pronunciation.

The English alphabet is phonetic whereas the Chinese characters are not.
If you learn the English alphabet, you can read an English writing fairly well although you may not understand the meaning.

Korean is even more phonetic than that of English and many other languages, in that each consonant and vowel in Korean mostly have only one sound.

For example,

ㄴ = n

ㅏ = a (as in car and mama, short sound)

ㄴ+ㅏ= 나 [na] (which means "I" as in "I" am Luke)

Following the guide for the Korean language down the column on the right-hand of the page, we're now moving onto learning the sounds of the consonants and vowels of 한글.

You'll learn to write and pronounce each of these consonants and vowels, and how to form a character in this next lesson.

Keep on reading!
I hope you enjoy this journey of learning a new language!
I think it's always exciting to learn a new language! ;D

Luke - I am a 51 year old veteran ESL teacher who is starting to learn Korean for the first time. I already speak fluent Thai and Spanish so I thought Korean would be just another hat to hang on my door. Ha! Was I wrong! Needless to say I am so impressed with your site. You have a true gift for explaining the intricacies of this beautiful but complicated language. Even though I can never hope to speak with the fluency and grace that my own Korean post-docs and scholars here at our univeristy speak Engish, I certainly feel I have some of the best hope possible through your excellent website. Thank you.

What you are doing is a divine work. That is the plainest Learn-KOREAN website ever! It is easy to perceive and I really appreciate that. Hopefully and finally I'll be able to start learning some KOREAN! Thank you very much! Kamsahamnida....

Oh my lord, I can not thank you enough for making this site. I am living in Japan at the moment, and after becoming tired with being able to speak Japanese, after speaking it for a while has made it lose it`s exciting spark it was had, I decided to search other languages and decided on Korean. Long story short, there is absolutely NOTHING as comprehensive as this anywhere else out there on the net, and I am ver grateful. Once again, can`t thank you enough.

Thank you so much for your effort to teach us...your teaching style is so wonderful...easy to understand and apply to daily life...I can say your website is the best for studying Korean language!!! Thank youuuuu ^^

The update looks great! It's friendly, and I think it will make people excited to learn Korean. ^^

I really love linguistics, so if you don't mind, there are two technical things I'd like to correct.

-English actually does have 반말 and 존댓말, but it's not explicit like it is in Korean. For example, to a child or friend, I might say, "Hey, close the window," but I would never say that to a stranger. Instead, I'd say something like, "Hey, would you mind closing the window?" or "Oh, could you close the window for me?" Spoken language is also different from written language, although again it's less explicit than it is in Korean. For example, 'whom' has almost completely passed out of spoken language in English, although it's still standard for written language. I think Korean's actually easier in these respects because you can pretty much use the correct level of politeness if you know the appropriate verb endings, whereas in English you might use extremely varied conjugations or lexical choices to affect the politeness of your language.

-한글 and 한자 are not actually languages; they're writing systems. Rather than saying that 한글 = Korean, it might be a bit clearer to say 한글 = the Korean alphabet.

I think your blog is fantastic, and it's been really useful to me!! I just wanted to clarify a couple of linguistic issues that I see pop up all the time, and I hope it's been helpful!

Rightly said, 한글 is the Korean alphabet and 한국어 is the "Korean language."

I have also updated on the other issues you have raised.

By the way, I've noticed an interesting thing among the things you said that English has "extremely varied conjugations or lexical choices to affect the politeness of the language."

I'm writing this as a bit of fun because I know Korean "uses extremely varied verb conjugations to affect the politeness of the language."

For example, (he/she/they)"went home" can be expressed in the following ways depending on the politeness and the situation.

This is a list of verb endings that I can think of right now. However, I believe there are a lot more variations in verb endings than already written here. The amount of verb endings in Korean is simply innumerable. How can I not worship God after realizing the complexity, variance and flexibility of such a language as this?

The nuances, level of confidence and politeness are all different but they stem from the same plain verb, 가다 (go), except a few exceptions.

Note: Please ignore this comment if you've just started learning Korean. I don't want you to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of these verb conjugations.

Help. i started my korean class in january and till now, i barely know anything. i am worried because i have exam on april. i dont seem to cope up with my lecturer's teaching. i just want to ask where should i start now? speaking first or writing first? or both? but how am i going to learn speaking and writing at the same time?

I guess if you're new to a Korean language, you could simply follow the lessons right from the beginning. Starting with the basic Korean alphabet and how to make characters and on.

There are audios available and I provided links for them. You would probably learn the writing most of the time but as you can get hold of Korean audios and videos, you could expand on your listening and speaking skills.

I recommend Talk To Me In Korean, the link is on the right hand column of this blog.

i love your blog! this may be a little exagerrated but it really is the most amazing and helpful blog i've ever encountered in my life! haha! thanks so much!you've helped us so much!! God will surely bless people like you!! 정말 감사합니다!! 대박!!:)

Mr Luke, Thank you very much. I have been reading about ten pages of the compilation and it is very encouraging. I am starting to believe i can learn the language well now. I am hoping i can converse soon too with little difficulty.Thank you very very much.

annionghaseyo Pak Sonsengnim, my name is Merci,Im from PERU (South America) I was wondering if I could translate your 2013 PDF file that you give for free on your website into Spanish and post them on BLOGGER as well as in YOUTUBE so that the spanish speaking people can learn Korean too for free.Ill put a link to your website. Wouldnt that be awesome.What do you think?I think that I can learn more if I teach as I learn from you.Let me know what you think.Chongmal Gamsahamnida.

Hi, Luke! I want to thank you so much for all the hard work you put into these lessons! I've started learning Korean not only because I love learning new languages, but because I'm a student that works with many people. Lately, I've come across a lot of Korean people that have trouble with English and in order to be more of service to them, I want to be able to communicate with them since the facilities I often work at lack translators. This site has really helped simplify the grammar rules that just seem nearly impossible to understand (because I'm taking Korean classes, but there are some rules that just I just can't seem to get). I'm working hard to learn the language and I'm loving it so far! Thank you again!

Hi, Luke! In my opinion, you should try to make this into a book. I think it is more detailed than any other books. The way you explained everything is so easy to understand and the audio really helps a lot in practicing pronunciation. Some books and other sites don't really explain in detail. I have been studying Korean and tried searching for resources but this, by far, is the best. Do you have any e-file of this that we could download? so I could print and read as a book. That would be great. More power to your site.

Thank you for making this website. I will do my best to finish all the lessons available here. Such a gift from God. I am planning to work in Korea and these learnings will help me on my preparation for the upcoming proficiency exam. Am thankful that you obeyed God on sharing your gift of teaching.Shalom!